Refrigeration appliance with ice maker

ABSTRACT

A refrigeration appliance, in particular a domestic refrigeration appliance, includes an ice maker that ejects finished ice cubes in a downward direction and a drawer disposed below the ice maker, which can be moved between a pushed in and a pulled out position. An ice storage container can be positioned in two non-overlapping positions in the drawer, only one of which is below an ejection region of the ice maker in the pushed in position.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority, under 35 U.S.C. §119, of German Patent Application DE 10 2015 216 076.9, filed Aug. 24, 2015; the prior application is herewith incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a refrigeration appliance, in particular a domestic refrigeration appliance, with an ice maker and a drawer disposed below the ice maker to catch finished ice cubes ejected by the ice maker, in which the drawer can be pulled out to allow easy access to the finished ice cubes.

An ice maker of that type is known, for example, from Japanese Patent Application JP2007-120822A. That conventional refrigeration appliance has a chiller compartment, the front face of which is closed by a thermally insulating front plate that can be moved on telescopic extensions. A storage container is suspended between the rails of the telescopic extensions to catch ice cubes ejected by the ice maker mounted below the top of the storage compartment in the closed position, when the front plate is resting tightly against the body of the appliance and to allow access to the ice cubes from above in the open position.

Since the finished ice should not come into contact with other chilled goods, the storage container of that conventional refrigeration appliance can only be used for ice when the ice maker is in operation. The designer must therefore find a compromise between the need of the user to be able to use the storage space of the refrigeration appliance in as versatile a manner as possible and thus to keep the part of the storage space reserved for ice making and storage as small as possible, and the need to also be able to produce and store a sufficient stock of ice for occasions when more is needed.

Summary of the Invention

It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a refrigeration appliance with an ice maker, which overcomes the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices of this general type.

With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a refrigeration appliance, in particular a domestic refrigeration appliance, with an ice maker that ejects finished ice cubes in a downward direction and a drawer disposed below the ice maker, in which the drawer can be moved between a pushed in and a pulled out position. An ice storage container can be positioned in two non-overlapping positions in the drawer, only one of which is below an ejection region of the ice maker in the pushed in position.

While the ice storage container is in this one position, the second position can be used without restriction and can be used to accommodate any chilled goods. It can, however, also be used to position the full ice storage container there and then to continue ice production in order to thus be able to prepare a large stock of ice.

The accessories of the refrigeration appliance according to the invention preferably include at least two ice storage containers, so that when a full ice storage container is disposed in such a way that its position is displaced in relation to the ejection region of the ice maker, the other can be positioned below the ejection region to catch the ice being produced.

When one of the ice storage containers is disposed in such a way that its position is displaced in relation to the ice maker, it can of course also be used there to accommodate other types of chilled goods.

The two positions of the ice storage container are preferably adjacent one another perpendicular to the movement direction of the drawer so that when one storage container has been removed from the drawer, the other can be moved from one position to the other by simple perpendicular displacement.

In the simplest instance the ice storage container can be displaced between the two positions on a base plate of the drawer. In particular, a surface region of the drawer, with which the storage container makes contact during displacement, should be free from inwardly oriented projections in order not to impede displacement unnecessarily.

The ice maker is preferably fastened below the top of a chiller compartment holding the drawer, so that when the drawer is pulled out it does not have to be moved with it and the storage container is freely accessible from above.

An end wall of the drawer can expediently extend to the front of the ice maker to minimize the dissemination of relatively moist air from the ice maker and the resulting buildup of frost in other parts of the refrigeration appliance.

This is expedient in particular when the chiller compartment is one of a number of chiller compartments, into which a storage chamber of the refrigeration appliance is divided.

These further chiller compartments can expediently also be fitted with drawers.

A rear wall of the drawer should have a cutout which the ice maker passes when the drawer is moved between the pushed in and pulled out positions.

The ice storage container typically has the form of a box that is open at the top with a base plate enclosed by an upright wall. In order to facilitate handling and in particular the removal of the ice storage container from the drawer, there should be provision for at least one grip segment projecting from the wall.

In a first embodiment the grip segment projects outward from a front wall of the ice storage container. The advantage of such a grip segment is in particular that the same ice storage container can also be used in a refrigeration appliance in which no drawer is provided below an ice maker but the ice storage container itself rests directly on a fixed base and the grip segment can be grasped and pulled out to access its contents.

In a second embodiment the grip segment can project inward from the wall. This particularly allows more efficient space utilization in the drawer and such a grip segment also allows a number of ice storage containers to be stacked.

In a third embodiment the ice storage container can have an upright side wall and a recess at the foot or base of the side wall, so that a user can grip the ice storage container securely from above with his/her hand, by introducing a thumb around the side wall into the interior of the ice storage container with the tips of the other fingers engaging in the recess from the outside.

Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.

Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a refrigeration appliance with an ice maker, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.

The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary, diagrammatic, perspective view of a refrigeration appliance according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary, sectional view through the refrigeration appliance of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an ice storage container of the refrigeration appliance of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary, perspective view of a second refrigeration appliance which is fitted with ice storage containers of the same type as the refrigeration appliance of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 3 of an ice storage container according to a second embodiment; and

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 3 of an ice storage container according to a third embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first, particularly, to FIG. 1 thereof, there is seen a perspective view of a domestic refrigeration appliance, in this instance a freezer according to the invention, in which part of a body 1 and a door 2 hinged thereto are respectively shown. A storage chamber 3 delimited by the body 1 and the door 2 is divided in this case into a total of three chiller or freezer compartments, each holding a respective drawer 4, 5 and 6. The chiller compartments are separated from one another by horizontal intermediate walls, typically in the form of wire tubular evaporators incorporated in a fixed manner in the body 1 which are, however, concealed below base plates 7 of the drawers 4, 5 in FIG. 1 and are therefore not visible.

An automatic ice maker 8, which is suspended from the wire tubular evaporator, separates the two upper compartments from one another and is visible through an end wall 13 of the drawer 5 that is shown as transparent herein. As is shown diagrammatically in FIG. 2, the ice maker 8 includes, in a manner which is known per se, within a box-type frame 9 that is open at the top and bottom, a tray 10 that can be pivoted about a horizontal axis with a plurality of ice cube molds as well as a non-illustrated water outlet connected to a domestic water pipe to fill the tray 10 and an electric motor, which is provided to pivot the tray 10 about the horizontal axis after the water has frozen therein and to twist it so the finished ice cubes drop out in a downward direction.

A first ice storage container 11 is positioned in the drawer 5 below the frame 9 to catch the finished ice cubes. The drawer 5 provides space next to the first ice storage container 11 for a second ice storage container 12 having an identical structure to the ice storage container 11. The second ice storage container 12 cannot be filled in its position shown in FIG. 2 but it can be positioned below the ice maker 8 instead of the first ice storage container 11 in order to be filled.

As is shown in particular in FIG. 3, the ice storage containers 11, 12 are in the form of boxes which are open at the top, with a front wall 14 facing the door 2 or the end wall 13 of the drawer 5, from which a grip segment 15, in this instance in the form of a channel which is open at the bottom, projects forward. When the ice storage container 11 or 12 is in the drawer 5, this grip segment 15 cannot be accessed easily by hand between the end wall 13 and the front wall 14. In order to lift the ice storage container 11, 12 out of the drawer 5, it is easier to grip it by its right side wall 16, which is offset sideways in relation to the ice maker 8 and extends higher than a left side wall 17. The grip segment 15 also allows the use of ice storage containers 11, 12 of identical structure in a different model of refrigeration appliance, a section of which is shown in FIG. 4 and in which the ice storage containers 11, 12 rest directly on a fixed compartment base 18 between two chiller or freezer compartments instead of being able to be moved out with a drawer.

FIG. 2 shows a diagrammatic section through the central chiller compartment of the refrigeration appliance of FIG. 1. The central chiller compartment is indicated by reference numeral 19 and is delimited at the top and bottom by plate-type wire tubular evaporators 20. The drawer 5 is passed in between the evaporators in such a manner that it can be moved on telescopic extensions 21. The base plate 7 of the drawer 5 is flat at least in the widthwise direction of the body 1, so that when one of the two ice storage containers 11, 12 shown in FIG. 3 is removed, the other can be moved back and forth easily on the base plate 7.

A gap 23 is formed for the ice maker 8 in a rear wall 22 of the drawer 5. Due to the gap, the movement of the drawer 5 in the depthwise direction of the body 1 is not impeded by the ice maker 8, which is anchored immovably on the upper wire tubular evaporator 20.

The rear wall 22 is connected to side walls 24, 25 of the drawer 5, in each instance by way of curved or angled segments 26, one of which is opposite the rear wall of the ice storage container 11 and the other of which is opposite the rear wall of the ice storage container 12. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the containers 11, 12 are provided with slopes 28 on their rear walls 27 in the direction of both side walls 16, 17. One of the slopes 28 in each instance is disposed at a short distance opposite one of the angled segments 26 of the drawer 5, depending on which of the two positions shown in FIG. 1 or 2 the container 11 or 12 is positioned at in the drawer 5.

FIGS. 5 and 6 each show perspective views of ice storage containers according to alternative embodiments of the invention.

In the embodiment of FIG. 5 the grip segment 15 on the outer face of the front wall 14 is omitted and replaced by a grip segment 29 extending inward in the manner of a stud from the front wall 14. Since in this instance no space is required for a grip segment between the front wall 14 and the end wall 13 of the drawer, with this embodiment the depth of the ice storage container 11 can be increased and its capacity thus enlarged while the dimensions of the drawer 5 remain the same.

A second stud-type grip segment 30 extends forward from the rear wall 27 of the storage container 11 to allow the ice storage container 11 to be gripped and raised securely with both hands.

The two grip segments 29, 30 in this case can also serve to have a further storage container of identical structure placed on them, thus optionally allowing a stack of two ice storage containers 11 to be accommodated next to the ice maker 8 in the drawer 5, while at the same time a third ice storage container can also be positioned below the ice maker 8 in order to be filled. As is shown in FIG. 2, the height of the ice storage containers 11, 12 is much smaller than that of the drawer 5. Since the ice storage containers can only be filled as a maximum to the height of the lower face of the ice maker 8, a greater height would not be beneficial. However, once a storage container 11 below the ice maker 8 has been filled, according to the embodiment of FIG. 5, it can be stacked on the adjacent storage container in order to thus allow the otherwise free space at the side of the ice maker 8 to be used for ice storage.

FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment of the storage container 11. In this case a recess 31 is formed on the lower edge of a side wall 16 of the container 11, which provides space for the other fingers when a user engages with a thumb around an upper edge 32 of the side wall 16, so the storage container 11 can be raised easily and securely with one hand. A vertical groove 33 in the side wall 16, which is shown above the recess 31 in this case, provides space for the user's hand even when the storage containers 11, 12 are accommodated close by one another and with little lateral clearance in the drawer 5. The groove 33 can also be omitted when the ice storage containers 11, 12 are accommodated in the drawer 5 with sufficient lateral clearance to allow the user's hand to reach between them to the recess 31.

In addition to the recess 31, the storage container 11 in FIG. 6 also has the grip segment 15 shown above in FIG. 3, so that this storage container can also be used in a refrigeration appliance with drawers of the type shown in FIG. 1 as well as in a refrigeration appliance in which the storage containers can be pulled out individually as shown in FIG. 4. Alternatively, the storage container could also have the inwardly oriented grip segments 29, 30 in FIG. 5 or could be free of additional grip segments. 

1. A refrigeration appliance or domestic refrigeration appliance, comprising: an ice maker ejecting finished ice cubes in a downward direction into an ejection region; a drawer disposed below said ice maker and being movable between a pushed in position and a pulled out position; and an ice storage container configured to be positioned in two non-overlapping positions in said drawer, only one of said two non-overlapping positions being below said ejection region of said ice maker in said pushed in position of said drawer.
 2. The refrigeration appliance according to claim 1, wherein said drawer is movable in a movement direction, and said two non-overlapping positions of said ice storage container are adjacent one another perpendicular to said movement direction of said drawer.
 3. The refrigeration appliance according to claim 1, wherein said drawer has a base plate, and said ice storage container is displaceable between said two non-overlapping positions on said base plate.
 4. The refrigeration appliance according to claim 1, which further comprises: a chiller compartment holding said drawer, said chiller compartment having a top; said ice maker having a front and said ice maker being fastened below said top of said chiller compartment; and said drawer having an end wall extending to said front of said ice maker.
 5. The refrigeration appliance according to claim 4, which further comprises a storage chamber, said chiller compartment being part of said storage chamber and said storage chamber being divided into a plurality of chiller compartments.
 6. The refrigeration appliance according to claim 1, wherein said drawer has a rear wall and a cutout formed in said rear wall, said cutout being moved past said ice maker during said movement between said pushed in and pulled out positions of said drawer.
 7. The refrigeration appliance according to claim 1, wherein said ice storage container has a base plate enclosed by an upright wall and a grip segment projecting from said upright wall.
 8. The refrigeration appliance according to claim 7, wherein said ice storage container has a front wall, and said grip segment projects outward from said front wall of said ice storage container.
 9. The refrigeration appliance according to claim 7, wherein said ice storage container has a wall, and said grip segment projects inward from said wall of said ice storage container.
 10. The refrigeration appliance according to claim 1, wherein said ice storage container has an upright side wall with a base and a recess formed at said base of said side wall. 